1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cooking apparatus for grilling food and in particular to an apparatus with dual grills which simultaneously cook food from the top and bottom. Each of the grills comprise an array of gas fired tubes forming level cooking surface.
2. Prior Art
An example of a gas fired grill or broiler may be found in Potts, U.S. Pat. No. 1,294,159. The grill has a rack of tubes arranged to form a planar cooking surface. Combustion gases enter an intake manifold at one end of the tubes and exit an exhaust duct connected to the opposite end of the tubes. The tubes may be enclosed in an oven type chamber and a drip pan is placed below the tubes. Individual tubes may be removed from the rack for cleaning or replacement, but the entire rack of tubes is not easily removed. The food being cooked must be turned periodically to insure that it cooks evenly as heat is supplied only from below.
An example of a gas fired cooking apparatus which simultaneously cooks from above and below is disclosed in Dreyfus U.S. Pat. No. 2,723,617. The racks of tubes in Dreyfus' apparatus are perforated burners which distribute a flame along their length. The pipes are not placed in contact with the food but rather the food is supported on cross bars above the pipes. One disadvantage of the aforementioned design is that the food to be cooked comes in contact with the combustion gases which may impart an undesirable flavor.
In Amici, U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,824 a gas fired apparatus is shown as an upper heat source for an outdoor grill. As in Dreyfus, a flame is distributed along a length of pipe. Small bricks suspended above the food absorb the heat and radiate it downward. Food is exposed to the combustion gases within the grill.
Individual electrical heating elements within a row of tubes are used in the following patents for cooking apparatus:
______________________________________ Nissen, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,320,873 Burstein U.S. Pat. No. 3,448,678 Bardeau, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,156 ______________________________________
The heated tubes in Nissen, et al. and Bardeau, et al. are in direct contact with the food as with the gas fired tubes used by Potts. Burstein discloses a radiant heat cooker with heated tubes both above and below a conveyor supporting the food. A shortcoming of electrically heated tubes is that they are slower to heat up and slower to respond to adjustments than gas fired cooking equipment